Some control technologies to promote activation of an exhaust gas cleaning catalyst during an engine warming up process have been proposed for an engine comprising an injector and a spark plug provided in a combustion chamber. For example, JP 2006-052687 A discloses a control device for an internal combustion engine. The internal combustion engine comprises an injector, a spark plug and an exhaust gas cleaning catalyst. The injector is provided substantially at a center of an upper part of a combustion chamber and is configured to inject fuel into a cylinder directly. The spark plug is provided at a portion in the upper part of the combustion chamber where a part of fuel spray from the injector reaches directly. The exhaust gas cleaning catalyst is provided in an exhaust passage. The control device is configured to perform an injection by the injector and an ignition by the spark plug in an expansion stroke to promote the activation of the exhaust gas cleaning catalyst.
The injection and the ignition in the expansion stroke are additionally performed after an injection and a subsequent ignition are performed in an intake stroke or a compression stroke. Specifically, a first time injection and a subsequent first time ignition are performed in the intake stroke or the compression stroke. Then, a second time injection and a subsequent second time ignition are performed in the middle to latter period of the expansion stroke to activate the exhaust gas cleaning catalyst. The second time fuel injection amount is set to be smaller than the first time fuel injection amount, and the second time ignition is performed before the fuel spray injected by the second time injection reaches a wall surface of the combustion chamber. Since a positional relationship between the injector and the spark plug is as described above and the second time ignition is performed at the timing described above, this control device allows almost all of fuel injected by the second time injection to be burned, thereby increasing the exhaust gas temperature.